We are excited to have Kutela Katembo visit BUMC on Sunday, June 7. Kutela is a new Methodist missionary who will be working in East Angola. He is from the Democratic Republic of Congo and is being sent to Quessua, Angola to work in sustainable agriculture. Kutela has a degree in Agriculture from Africa University in Zimbabwe and while he has not yet been to Angola, he has worked on UMCOR food security issues and as an agricultural trainer and consultant. After touring Bozeman he will visit other churches in Montana before going to Helena. He will be commissioned at the Yellowstone Annual Conference in Helena on June 20. Our Conference has a history of strong support of Methodist projects and pastors in Angola and we are looking forward to meeting Kutela.

There are 12 additional missionaries being commissioned this spring, and you can read more about all of them here. This link will take you to more information on YAC involvement in Angola.

UMCOR’s supply of school kits is critically low….so, with gratitude for your generous donations of health kit supplies, we are transitioning to the collection of school kit supplies for the month of June and in conjunction with VBS. Take-home lists of school kit supplies are in the red attendance books and are available at the blue collection bin in the narthex. Thank you for supporting UMCOR’s relief work!

Pads of paper: Spiral- or top-bound pads; 150 sheets or less of loose-leaf paper can be substituted for 1 pad; combination of spiral, top-bound, side-bound, or loose-leaf paper is acceptable. (No composition books)

Hand-held pencil sharpener: Must be at least 1 inch long; remove from packaging.

14×16 inch cloth bag: Homemade or purchased bags are both acceptable; heavy-duty fabric only, such as denim, corduroy, drapery fabric, etc.; no advertisements, religious, patriotic, military, or camouflage symbols; closures are optional but must be buttons, snaps, or Velcro sewn in middle of opening, if used.

Funds for shipping emergency kits are also appreciated. Please enclose an envelope containing at least $1 for each kit you send. For Cleaning Buckets, please enclose $1.50.

Your generous Lenten offerings went to two causes this spring. Helen Sheperd’s work in Mongolia received $1150 and Luccock Park in the Paradise Valley of Montana received $725.

Helen is a missionary who has spent many years in Ulaanbaatar establishing a hospice network and faith community. Grace Hospice provides a spiritual care counselor, doctors, nurses, and trained volunteers who make regular visits to the patients in their home to offer physical, emotional, social, and spiritual comfort for the patient and the family caregivers. For more information see the March 31 blog post, or the Grace Hospice link.

Luccock Park is being enthusiastically revitalized with a vision to create a joyous place for people to reconnect with the outdoors. Your contributions will help build a handicap-accessible cabin so no one with physical limitations will be excluded.

Over Memorial Day weekend there was a work weekend to spruce up the facility, and a visioning session to re-ignite the Camp’s vision of the future. For details please contact John Soderberg or the Luccock Park Camp website. They also have a Facebook page that features many updates.

The Intermountain 2014 Stakeholders Report arrived recently, and it describes how “children, youth and families are finding their place because you have made Intermountain a place where healing happens. Your partnership makes our success possible.”

Two new residential cottages were completed on the Helena campus and a similar building is being constructed in the Flathead Valley. These physical buildings support the nurturing care that Intermountain provides to troubled children. Quality relational care – be it residential treatment, outpatient counseling, in-home support, or a host of other programs – serves children and families.

In 2014 Intermountain served 1570 children, youth and families through residential or outpatient services and 800 parents and professionals received vital training. Charitable gifts of $3 million were provided by 2438 donors, 126 churches (including BUMC) and 58 foundations.

Ken Koome is a United Methodist Missionary in Quessua, Angola, and he visited BUMC in April 2014. He is helping the people of the East Angola Conference rebuild their lives, ministries and facilities after Angola’s 40 years of warfare. Roads in Angola are rough and he needs a truck. In his December 2014 newsletter Ken wrote, “I have no transportation to help me in my ministry. I commute by public transport that is rarely available from Quessua where I live, to Malanje where my office is located (a distance of about 13 km or 8 miles). We have started receiving gifts to help with construction of churches, it has not been possible for me to visit and assess how the work is progressing.” In addition to just getting to his office he needs to be able to:

Haul building materials to churches and villages

Help transport visiting work teams

Help transport pastors serving very remote villages

Vehicles in Angola are expensive. A good used truck has been found for $39,000, and as of mid-March over half of that had already been raised. Rocky Mountain Conference and Yellowstone Conference have come together to work toward the goal of raising $18,000 for Ken’s truck. BUMC is part of the Yellowstone Conference, and our Conference goal is $6000. After the truck is purchased Global Ministries will cover fuel and maintenance costs. We want to raise this money by May 31, 2015 so we can celebrate at the Annual Conference meeting in Helena June 18 – 20.

The WOW Team will donate $1000 from their Toy Sale toward Ken’s truck, and the Youth Group has also collected funds. We are working on an opportunity for our congregation to have special family portraits taken in exchange for a donation to Ken’s truck. If you would like to make a separate contribution, you can write a check to BUMC and put “truck for Ken” in the memo line or by go to www.EastAngola.org and use the Advance #00339A. This website also explains more about East Angola Pastor Support and Quessua Methodist Mission and has a link to Ken’s biography.

The BUMC Homeless Shower Mission team is looking for more volunteers. Some of the HRDC partners who have helped with the shower program during the winter rotations have had to drop out, thus leaving voids in the summer calendar. BUMC’s once a month commitment is now stepping up to provide two times per month on first and third Saturdays. Our team has several volunteers in rotation, but by adding an additional commitment and with summer schedules, we need more volunteers. The time commitment would be for three hours on a Saturday morning about once every other month. We happily train you on site at the Warming Center, and it is a joy to help this community of homeless folks. If you would like to hear more about making a commitment to this BUMC Ministry, contact Dick Pohl, BUMC Shower Captain, at pohl@bresnan.net,

Over Spring Break this March, 10 young adults from the United Methodist Campus Ministry at Montana State University (Bozeman) and two adult staff from Bozeman United Methodist Church ventured to San Francisco to serve as short term missionaries in four different locations over a nine day trip.

Monday at Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, in the Tenderloin of San Francisco, we served over 1500 meals (both vegetarians and meat eaters). Tuesday we served at the SF Marin County Food Bank. On Wednesday we worked at Habitat Terrace a Habitat for Humanity job site in San Francisco that will house 17 three bedroom units and 11 two bedroom units on the same lot. Our last day of volunteering (Thursday) took us to Project Open Hand in the civic center district.

We had a fantastic experience and would love to share our travel itinerary and mission contacts with anyone interested in taking a mission trip to San Francisco. We’ll even share our recipes for the meals we ate at the Waller Center each night! Contact Ann at 586-5413 for details.

Helen Sheperd and Grace Hospice in Mongolia are one of the recipients of this year’s Lenten Offering. For nearly ten years Helen has worked to establish a hospice program in and around Ulaanbaatar bringing spiritual, emotional and physical comfort to many people while also empowering local leaders. Grace Hospice partners with a local nursing school and coordinates with their student nurse practicum program to provide visitation to patients. Helen will officially retire in June, 2015 but she has identified an indigenous doctor who will take over as director of Grace Hospice, and after retiring she will continue in a volunteer position to assist in the leadership transition.

The March 2015 Global Ministries web page published a very nice article describing Helen, Grace Hospice and their plans for the future. BUMC also received a newsletter from Helen which gives some personal insight into her work and thanks us, and others, for our past and continued support.

UMCOR, the United Methodist Committee on Relief, is a 75 year-old Methodist organization dedicated to relieving human suffering “without distinction of race, color or creed.” BUMC was honored to have the Rev. Jack Amick, Assistant General Secretary International Disaster Response, visit on March 22 to thank us for our support and to explain what UMCOR does. His visit coincided with our celebration of One Great Hour of Sharing, the Special Sunday when donations are collected to cover the administrative and overhead costs of UMCOR. You gave $8000 that day! One Great Hour provides a “platform” for immediate action, allowing UMCOR to use 100% of funds given to specific projects for those projects.

When a foreign disaster strikes, UMCOR works to quickly deliver funds to local partner organizations which already have established relationships with them. Grant requests are typically reviewed and funded within 10 days. Enabling local groups provides income and meaningful work to folks who know local techniques and resources without the added burden of transporting and housing volunteers from outside the region. Additionally, the assistance must meet international standards for best practices. UMCOR staff views their use of your donated funds and oversight of partner organizations as a sacred trust, and they work hard to uphold that trust.

Support may go to disasters that are well-covered in the news, such as Typhoon Haiyan or the more recent Cyclone Pam that hit Vanuatu in March 2015. There are also many under-reported disasters that UMCOR responds to. In September 2013 a blizzard hit the Andes in Peru, killing six people and most of the sheep, alpacas and llamas that were their main source of livelihood. Because of their relationship with PROVEA, UMCOR was able to supply food to 700 individuals. You can read more here.

For more information on UMCOR, visit this link to an article by Denise Honeycutt, deputy general secretary for UMCOR, the UMCOR website or contact Cathy Baumbauer, Mission Coordinator, at cathy@bozemanumc.org.

One Great Hour of Sharing is one of six churchwide Special Sundays. One Great Hour of Sharing calls United Methodists to share the goodness of life with those who hurt. Your gifts lay the foundation for UMCOR to share God’s love with communities everywhere. The One Great Hour of Sharing offering underwrites UMCOR’s “cost of doing business.” This helps UMCOR to keep the promise that 100 percent of any gift to a specific UMCOR project will go towards that project, not for administrative costs. You can learn more about One Great Hour at this UMC website – UMCgiving.org .

BUMC will celebrate One Great Hour of Sharing on Sunday, March 22. In recognition of our long and generous support of UMCOR (the United Methodist Committee on Relief), we will also have a special guest speaker from the national offices. Jack Amick is head of International Disaster Relief and will present a Mission Minute at each service. He will also lead discussions downstairs following the 8:30 service, and during the latter part of the 9:45 service. We hope you can attend and learn more about the tremendous impact your gifts to One Great Hour and UMCOR have on people in the United States around the world.